Hyderabad| Sushisurge’s canvases explore evolving personas

Hyderabad-based artist Sushisurge explores migration, personas, and emotional changes through hand-painted canvases in his solo exhibition.

Concepts related to migration and the idea of ‘personas’ have always intrigued Hyderabad-based artist Sushisurge (Sushant Surge). Having moved from Chandigarh to Bengaluru, Delhi and now Hyderabad, the artist explores how emotional changes and various identities one adopts while traversing through unfamiliar cities, cultures and communities impact our sense of self.

His first solo show, People Who Never Were, features 10 hand-painted canvases that revolve around the theme of the many personas we carry within ourselves. A striking black-on-black canvas with just eyes gazing at the viewer, or abstract faces on other canvases draw the attention of visitors “Most of my work has to do with how lives transform when we move to cities, because I have also moved a lot,” he says.

The exhibition also showcases ceramic pieces he created in collaboration with Pooja Chamudiya.

The artist admits his art involves a lot of self-reflection. He considers himself lucky to have lived in welcoming cities. He explains that the personality evolves over time: “When you move to various cities, you not only move away from people there but also immerse yourself in a new culture. You wonder which parts of you remain in the previous city and which parts you evolve into.”

With people across the world moving to new places, and global migration being the order of the day, many personas emerge that exhibits by Sushisurge encourage us to explore. While the new place motivates one to evolve, different phases of life play a significant part in shaping our persona. “With age, we often outgrow a phase or trait. We may be impulsive at a certain age but we learn to move on, without looking back at our older selves with regret. Maybe we were kinder and more curious back then,” he says before he ponders, “Do you want to reconnect with a persona you left in the past or are you happy to have moved on from then?”

With acrylic paints and charcoal on canvas as core mediums, the artist creates unique hand-painted canvases. He begins by sketching figurative forms on a canvas and then reduces as much as he can from the figure, asking questions like “How much can I take away from the face for it to still resemble face’ or ‘Do I need the mouth and nose’?”. This process leads him to create abstract art. Once he reaches a simplified form, even multiple faces look like a crowd, he uses his index finger to apply black or white paint.

The creative process is challenging and laborious, taking him a week to create smaller canvases (4x4 feet) to sometimes even a fortnight for bigger pieces (5x4 feet or 5x7 feet). The art style is less forgiving, he says; if his finger slips and he ends up applying more black colour on a white canvas, it’s tough to just paint over it and move on. Most of the time, he has to redo the canvas and start all over again.